Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent demonstrators in Rome as tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets in major European cities and around the globe Saturday to call for a cease-fire as the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel approached. Huge rallies were held in several European cities, with gatherings expected to continue over the weekend and peak on Monday, the date of the anniversary. In Rome, several thousands demonstrated peacefully Saturday afternoon until a smaller group tried to push the rally toward the center of the city, in spite of a ban by local authorities who refused to authorize protests, citing security concerns. Some protesters, dressed in black and with their faces covered threw stones, bottles and paper bombs at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, eventually dispersing the crowd. At least 30 law enforcement officers and three demonstrators were injured in the clashes, local media reported. The rally in Rome had been calm earlier, with people chanting “Free Palestine, Free Lebanon,” waving Palestinian flags and holding banners calling for an immediate stop to the conflict. In London, thousands marched through the capital to Downing Street amid a heavy police presence. The atmosphere was tense as pro-Palestinian protesters and counterdemonstrators, some holding Israeli flags, passed one another. Scuffles broke out as police officers pushed back activists trying to get past a cordon. At least 17 people were arrested on suspicion of public order offenses, supporting a proscribed organization and assault, London's Metropolitan Police said. In the northern German city of Hamburg, about 950 people staged a peaceful demonstration with many waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags or chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the DPA news agency reported, citing a count by police. Two smaller pro-Israeli counterdemonstrations took place without incident, it said. Several thousands protesters gathered peacefully at Paris’ Republique Plaza in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Many were waving Palestinian flags while holding posters reading ”stop the genocide,” “free Palestine,” and “hands off Lebanon.” Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also gathered at New York’s Times Square to call for a cease-fire, chanting “Gaza!" to a drumbeat. Some wore keffiyeh scarfs, waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags and held a large cardboard image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with red paint symbolizing blood across his face. Rallies were also planned in several other cities in the United States as well as in other parts of the world, including Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and India. In the Philippines, dozens of left-wing activists protested near the U.S. Embassy in Manila, where police prevented them from getting closer to the seaside compound. Read: Tens of thousands join pro-Palestinian rallies in Europe amid high alert as Oct. 7 anniversary nears Pro-Israeli demonstrations are expected to be held Sunday because Jews across the world are still observing Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish new year. This year, emotions will be high for many given that the midpoint of the 10 days spanning Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is Oct. 7 — the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. High security alerts Security forces in several countries warned of heightened levels of alert in major cities, amid concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could inspire new terror attacks in Europe or that the protests could turn violent. Pro-Palestinian protests calling for an immediate cease-fire have repeatedly taken place across Europe and around the globe in the past year and have often turned violent, with confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement officers. Italian authorities believed that the timing of Saturday's rally in Rome risked the Oct. 7 attack being “glorified,” local media reported. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi also stressed that, ahead of the key anniversary, Europe is on high alert for potential terror attacks. “This is not a normal situation. … We are already in a condition of maximum prevention,” he said. Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Britain, said he and others will keep organizing marches until action against Israel is taken. “We need to be out on the streets in even bigger numbers to stop this carnage and stop Britain being drawn into it,” Jamal said. In Berlin, a march is scheduled from the Brandenburg Gate to Bebelplatz on Sunday. Local media reported that security forces have warned of potential overload because of the scale of protests. German authorities pointed to increasing antisemitic and violent incidents in recent days. Read more:Dozens arrested in new pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA Earlier this week in France, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned the country’s regional prefects, expressing concern about possible tensions and saying that the terrorist threat was high. Thousands rally in DC for Gaza and Lebanon About 3,000 people demonstrated within sight of the White House, protesting the year-old Israeli siege of Gaza and the widening attacks on Lebanon. Amid a heavy police presence, the protesters gathered at Lafayette Park, the same site as the summer 2020 protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd in police custody. The crowds chanted, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” One speaker on stage commemorated Oct. 7, 2023, as “the day that Gazans finally broke out of their prison.” The crowds then marched through downtown D.C., with police closing the streets ahead of them. Dozens of protesters carried signs criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the issue. One sign read: “Abandon Harris ’24.” Law student Annette Tunstall said she had a brief moment when she considered voting Democrat after Biden stepped down and Harris assumed the candidacy. But she lost faith when she said pro-Palestinian voices were muzzled at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Read more:Police clear Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University, dozens arrested “I really wanted to feel like I could vote for her in good conscience,” Tunstall said. “I don’t think it would have taken a lot for thousands of pro-Palestinian people to hold their nose and vote for Harris.” A tense and bloody year On Oct. 7 last year, Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 people hostage and setting off a war with Israel that has shattered much of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since then in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians. Nearly 100 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than 70 believed to be alive. Israelis have experienced attacks — missiles from Iran and Hezbollah, explosive drones from Yemen, fatal shootings and stabbings — as the region braces for further escalation. In late September, Israel shifted some of its focus to Hezbollah, which it seeks to push back from its border in parts of south Lebanon where the group is entrenched.

Palestinian Ambassador to Bangladesh Yousef  S.Y. Ramadan on Tuesday met Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain and briefed him on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and West Bank, especially the killing of innocent women and children. He also focused on the growing concerns and escalation of tensions in the Middle East, resulting in widespread instability in the region and beyond. The conversation also touched on the challenges faced by Palestinian students who have been unable to take advantage of scholarships offered by universities in Bangladesh due to the ongoing blockade in Gaza. The Ambassador expressed deep gratitude for Bangladesh’s longstanding support to Palestine in the international platforms and sought for continued support in future, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Affairs Adviser reiterated Bangladesh’s steadfast support to the Palestinians and their inalienable rights to an independent and viable state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.    

In Israel's call for the evacuation of half of Gaza's population, many Palestinians fear a repeat of the most traumatic event in their tortured history, their mass exodus from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. Palestinians refer to it as the Nakba, or "catastrophe." An estimated 700,000 Palestinians, a majority of the prewar population, fled or were expelled from what is now Israel in the months before and during the war, in which Jewish fighters fended off an attack by several Arab states. The Palestinians packed their belongings, piling into cars, trucks and donkey carts. Many locked their doors and took their keys with them, expecting to return when the war ended. Seventy-five years later, they have not been allowed back. Emptied towns were renamed, villages were demolished, homes reclaimed by forests in Israeli nature reserves. Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms Israel refused to allow the Palestinians to return, because it would threaten the Jewish majority within the country's borders. So the refugees and their descendants, who now number nearly 6 million, settled in camps in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Those camps eventually grew into built-up neighborhoods. In Gaza, the vast majority of the population are Palestinian refugees, many of whose relatives fled from the same areas that Hamas attacked last weekend. The Palestinians insist they have the right to return, something Israel still adamantly rejects. Their fate was among the thorniest issues in the peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago. Now, Palestinians fear the most painful moment from their history is repeating itself. "You look at those pictures of people without cars, on donkeys, hungry and barefoot, getting out any way they can to go to the south," said political analyst Talal Awkal, who has decided to stay in Gaza City because he doesn't think the south will be any safer. "It is a catastrophe for Palestinians, it is a Nakba," he said. "They are displacing an entire population from its homeland." Israel has vowed to crush Hamas after its bloody Oct. 7 incursion. Militants killed over 1,300 Israelis, many in brutal fashion, and captured around 150 — including soldiers and civilians, young and old. Israel has launched blistering waves of airstrikes on Gaza in response that have already killed over 1,500 Palestinians, and the war appears set to escalate further. Palestine-Israel clash won’t have any impact on Bangladesh: FM Momen On Friday, Israel called on all Palestinians living in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to head south. The evacuation orders apply to more than a million people, about half the population of the narrow, 40-kilometer (25-mile) coastal strip. With Israel having sealed Gaza's borders, the only direction to flee is south, toward Egypt. But Israel is still carrying out airstrikes across the Gaza, and Egypt has rushed to secure its border against any mass influx of Palestinians. It too, fears another Nakba. Israeli officials say the evacuation is aimed at sparing civilians and denying Hamas the ability to use them as human shields. "The camouflage of the terrorists is the civil population," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday. "We need to separate them. So those who want to save their life, please go south." The military has said those who leave can return when hostilities end, but many Palestinians are deeply suspicious. Israel's far-right government has empowered extremists who support the idea of deporting Palestinians, and in the wake of the Hamas attack some have openly called for mass expulsion. Some are West Bank settlers still angry over Israel's unilateral pullout from Gaza in 2005. "Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!" Ariel Kallner, a member of parliament from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, wrote on social media after the Hamas attack. Israel's Netanyahu vows to 'destroy' Hamas, says Gaza offensive still in early stages Hamas, meanwhile, has told people to remain in their homes, dismissing the Israeli orders as a ploy. President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the internationally-recognized Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, also rejected the evacuation orders, saying they would lead to a "new Nakba." Abbas, 87, is a refugee from Safed, in what is now northern Israel. He wore a key-shaped lapel pin when he addressed the United Nations last month, noting the 75th anniversary of the Nakba. Palestinians have heard their relatives' stories, and have been raised on the idea that the only hope for their decades-long struggle for self-determination is steadfastness on the land. But many in Gaza may be too frightened, exhausted and desperate to make a stand. For nearly a week, they have been seeking safety under a barrage of Israeli airstrikes that have demolished entire city blocks, sometimes hitting without warning. There's a territory-wide electricity blackout and dwindling supplies of food, fuel and medicine. The south isn't safe, but if Israel launches a ground offensive in the north, as seems increasingly likely, it might be their best hope for survival, even if they never return. "The experience that happened with our families in 1948 taught us that if you leave, you will not return," said Khader Dibs, who lives in the crowded Shuafat refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem. "The Palestinian people are dying and the Gaza Strip is being wiped out."

Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an attack inside Israel over the weekend, killing hundreds and taking others hostage. Its unprecedented breach of the border sent fighters inside border communities and military installations, shocked Israel and its allies, and raised questions about the group’s capabilities and strategy. WHAT IS HAMAS? The group was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first intifada, or uprising, which was marked by widespread protests against Israel’s occupation. Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, and a recognition of the group’s roots and early ties to one of the Sunni world’s most prominent groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s. The group has vowed to annihilate Israel and has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers. The U.S. State Department has designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization. Hamas won 2006 parliamentary elections elections and in 2007 violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, dominated by rival Fatah movement, administers semi-autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel responded to the Hamas takeover with a blockade on Gaza, restricting movement of people and goods in and out of the territory in a step it says is needed to keep the group from developing weapons. The blockade has ravaged Gaza's economy, and Palestinians accuse Israel of collective punishment. Over the years, Hamas received backing from Arab countries, such as Qatar and Turkey. Recently, it's moved closer to Iran and its allies. Read more: What to know as war between Israel and Hamas rages on for a fourth day WHO ARE HAMAS' LEADERS? Hamas founder and spiritual leader Yassin — a paralyzed man who used a wheelchair — spent years in Israeli prisons and oversaw the establishment of Hamas' military wing, which carried out its first suicide attack in 1993. Israeli forces have targeted Hamas leaders throughout the years, killing Yassin in 2004. Khaled Mashaal, an exiled Hamas member who survived an earlier Israeli assassination attempt, became the group’s leader soon after. Yehia Sinwar, in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile, are Hamas' current leaders. They realigned the group’s leadership with Iran and its allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. Since then, many of the group’s leaders relocated to Beirut. Read more: Israel strikes and seals off Gaza after incursion by Hamas, which vows to execute hostages WHAT DOES HAMAS WANT? Hamas has always espoused violence as a means to liberate occupied Palestinian territories and has called for the annihilation of Israel. Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and over the years fired tens of thousands of increasingly powerful rockets from Gaza into Israel. It also established a network of tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt to smuggle in weapons, as well as attack tunnels burrowing into Israel. In recent years, Hamas had appeared to be more focused on running Gaza than attacking Israel. WHY NOW? In recent years, Israel has made peace deals with Arab countries without having to make concessions in its conflict with the Palestinians. The U.S. has recently been trying to broker a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a bitter rival of Hamas' Iranian backers. Meanwhile, Israel's new far-right government was working to cement Israeli settlements in the West Bank despite Palestinian opposition. Hamas leaders say an Israeli crackdown on militants in the West Bank, continued construction of settlements — which the international community considers to be illegal — thousands of prisoners in Israeli jails, and its ongoing blockade of Gaza pushed it to attack. Its leaders say hundreds of its 40,000 fighters took part in the assault. Israel says the group has about 30,000 fighters and an arsenal of rockets, including some with a range of about 250 kilometers (155 miles), and unmanned drones. Read more: Israel-Hamas war: Humanitarian groups scrambling to assist civilians

Israel is holding over 1,000 Palestinian detainees without charge or trial, the highest number since 2003, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday. Israel says the controversial tactic, known as administrative detention, helps authorities thwart attacks and hold dangerous militants without divulging incriminating material for security reasons. Palestinians and rights groups say the system is widely abused and denies due process, with the secret nature of the evidence making it impossible for administrative detainees or their lawyers to mount a defense. HaMoked, an Israeli rights group that regularly gathers figures from prison authorities, said that as of April, there were 1,016 detainees held in administrative detention. Nearly all of them are Palestinians detained under military law, as administrative detention is very rarely used against Jews. Four Israeli Jews are currently being held without charge. “There is no sense of when the nightmare will end,” said 48-year-old Manal Abu Bakr in Dheisheh, a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Her 28-year-old son Mohammed lost his four college years to administrative detention. Her husband, Nidal, a journalist and radio presenter, remains in custody. He has spent 17 years behind bars in the past three decades, more than half of it without charge, according to a prisoner’s rights group, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. The hearing on the renewal of his detention is set for September. “I’m exhausted," Manal said. “It's hard even to hope.” HaMoked says 2,416 Palestinians are serving sentences after being convicted in Israeli military courts. An additional 1,409 detainees are being held for questioning, have been charged and are awaiting trial, or are currently being tried. Among the 76 Palestinians incarcerated in the last month, 49 are administrative detainees. Administrative detention orders can be issued for a maximum of six months, but can be renewed indefinitely. “The numbers are shocking,” said Jessica Montell, the director of HaMoked. “There are no restraints on the use of what should be a rare exception. It's just getting easier and easier for them to hold people with no charge or trial.” A widespread military crackdown on Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank has helped fuel the sharp rise in administrative detentions. Israel's campaign of raids into Palestinian cities and towns following a string of deadly Palestinian attacks last year led to the arrest of over 2,400 Palestinians since March 2022, according to the Israeli military. Israel's Shin Bet security service did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest administrative detention figures. Israel describes the ramped-up raids as a counterterrorism effort to prevent further attacks. Palestinian residents and critics say the operation only further stokes the cycle of bloodshed, as the incursions ignite violent protests and firefights with Palestinian militants. Nearly 90 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire this year, according to an Associated Press tally. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 15 people in the same period. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, but the dead have included stone-throwing youths and bystanders who were not involved in violence. The last time Israel held this many administrative detainees was in May 2003, HaMoked said, in the throes of a violent Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. “The numbers always increase when there are heightened tensions on the ground,” said Sahar Francis, a director of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group . Administrative detention "is an efficient tool for the arrest of hundreds of people in a short time.” The West Bank has been under Israeli military rule since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. The territory’s nearly 3 million Palestinian residents are subject to Israel’s military justice system, while the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers living alongside them have Israeli citizenship and are subject to civilian courts.

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinian militants Sunday who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, the latest bloodshed in a year-long wave of violence in the region. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, claimed the men killed as members. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the men were killed by Israeli fire near the city of Nablus and identified them as Jihad Mohammed al-Shami, 24, Uday Othman al-Shami, 22 and Mohammed Raed Dabeek, 18. The military said it confiscated three M16 rifles from the militants after the shootout and that one gunman turned himself in and was arrested. Also Read: Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in West Bank The deaths Sunday bring to 80 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the year, as Israel has stepped up arrest raids in the West Bank. A spasm of Palestinian attacks against Israelis has killed 14 people in 2023. The fresh violence follows an Israeli military raid last week on the West Bank village of Jaba, where three Palestinian militants were killed. Hours later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a busy Tel Aviv thoroughfare at the start of the Israeli weekend, wounding three people before being shot and killed. The current round of violence is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank in years. It began last spring after a series of Palestinian attacks against Israelis that triggered near-nightly Israeli raids in the West Bank. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to the leading Israeli rights group B'Tselem. Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that same time killed 30 people. The military says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed. Israel says the raids are essential to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. But attacks appear to be intensifying rather than slowing down. The Palestinians view the raids as a tightening by Israel of its 55-year, open-ended occupation of lands they seek for their future state. Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their future independent state.

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager Tuesday during an army raid in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said. The death was the latest in an almost year-long surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence that shows no signs of abating. Meanwhile, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, a video captured by an American journalist showing an Israeli soldier shoving a Palestinian activist to the ground and then kicking him caused an uproar online — prompting the Israeli military to jail the soldier for 10 days. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out raids across the occupied West Bank overnight. During an operation in the Faraa refugee camp near the northeastern city of Tubas, the army said it opened fire on a Palestinian who approached troops with an explosive device. The camp is home to a recently formed militant cell affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist group. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 17-year-old Mahmoud al-Aydi died from a bullet wound to the head. No militant group immediately claimed him as a member. Also on Tuesday, a 25-year-old Palestinian succumbed to wounds he suffered two years ago when the Israeli army shot him in Masafer Yatta, in the southern West Bank, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. Palestinian health officials identified him as Haroun Abu Aram. Footage from the incident in 2021 showed him struggling to prevent Israeli security forces from confiscating his portable generator before a shot rang out, and he collapsed. Tensions have mounted for months as Israel has escalated arrest raids in the West Bank, which were prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last spring. Some 30 people were killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022, and at least 12 others died in attacks so far in 2023. An Israeli Border Police officer died Monday after he was stabbed by a Palestinian teen in east Jerusalem. A security guard opened fire at the assailant, but police say he also wound up shooting and critically wounding 1st Sgt. Asil Su'ad. A Bedouin Arab serving in Israel's paramilitary police force, Su’ad was to be laid to rest in northern Israel on Tuesday. In Hebron, prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro was giving an interview to Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker magazine on Monday when an Israeli soldier grabbed Amro by the neck as if to choke him before throwing him onto a brick sidewalk, footage posted by Wright on Twitter showed. The soldier kicked Amro as he lay on the ground and began to drag him on the concrete before another soldier intervened, pulling him away from Amro. Late on Monday, the Israeli army said the soldier would serve 10 days in military prison and be suspended from active combat duty, adding, “As the video shows, the soldier did not act as expected and did not follow the (military's) code of conduct." Palestinian and human rights groups accuse the Israeli military of frequently using excessive force and say soldiers are rarely punished for violent acts. Even in the most shocking cases — and those captured on video — soldiers often get relatively light sentences. Yet Israel's ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir lambasted the punishment as a “disgrace.” He has long called for a relaxation of open-fire regulations and immunity from criminal prosecution for members of the security forces acting in combat situations in the West Bank. “Soldiers deserve to be backed up, not jailed,” Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. At least 48 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since the start of this year. Israel says that most of those killed have been militants but others — including youths protesting the incursions and other people not involved in confrontations — have also been killed. Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for independent state.

A Palestinian attacker in his early teens opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding two people, officials said, a day after another assailant killed seven outside a synagogue in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008. The shooting in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, near the historic Old City, wounded a father and son, ages 47 and 23, paramedics said. Both were fully conscious and in moderate to serious condition in the hospital, the medics added. Police said they shot and overpowered the 13-year-old attacker, wounding him. He was taken to a hospital, they said, and there was no further word on his condition. Video showed police escorting a wounded young man, wearing nothing but underwear, away from the scene and onto a stretcher. Authorities taped off the street and emergency vehicles and security forces swarmed the area as helicopters whirled overhead. Saturday's events — just a day before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in the region —raised the possibility of even greater conflagration in one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied West Bank in several years. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, in a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not internationally recognized. The attacks pose pivotal test for Israel’s new far-right government. Its firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has presented himself as an enforcer of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to take even stronger action against the Palestinians. The Israeli army said it had deployed another battalion to the West Bank on Saturday, adding hundreds more troops to a presence already on heightened alert in the occupied territory. Prime Minister Benjamin said he would convene his Security Cabinet on Saturday night, after the end of the sabbath, to discuss a further response to the attack near the synagogue. Security forces launched a crackdown early Saturday, fanning out into the neighborhood of the 21-year-old Palestinian gunman, who was shot and killed at the scene. Police arrested 42 of his family members and neighbors for questioning in the At-Tur neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Police Chief Kobi Shabtai moved a force analogous to a S.W.A.T. team in the city and beefed up forces, instructing police to work 12-hour shifts. He urged the public to call a hotline if they see anything suspicious. The earlier Friday attack, which occurred as residents were observing the Jewish sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine Palestinians in the West Bank that prompted a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. Although calm had appeared to take hold after the limited exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza militants, tensions were running high in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Thursday's raid, deadliest single incursion in the West Bank since 2002, followed a particularly bloody month that saw at least 30 Palestinians — militants and civilians — killed in in confrontations with Israelis in the West Bank, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations also have been killed. Israel says its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, and much of the world considers it illegally occupied. Israel claims as its united, sovereign capital. Home to archaeological ruins and shrines of all three major monotheistic religions, the contested capital been the centerpiece of spiking tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for years. Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem hold permanent residency status, allowing them to work and move freely throughout Israel, but they are not allowed to vote in national elections. Residency rights can be stripped if a Palestinian is found to live outside the city for an extended period or in certain security cases. Although their standard of living is generally better than in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem receive a fraction of the services that Jewish residents do. They complain of home demolitions and the near impossibility of obtaining Israeli building permits.

A Palestinian gunman opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday night, killing seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three others before he was shot and killed by police, officials said. It was the deadliest attack on Israelis in years and raised the likelihood of more bloodshed. The attack, which occurred as residents were observing the Jewish sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine people in the West Bank. The shooting set off celebrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where people fired guns into the air, honked horns and distributed sweets. The burst of violence, which also included a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, has posed an early challenge for Israel’s new government, which is dominated by ultranationalists who have pushed for a hard line against Palestinian violence. It also cast a cloud over a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region Sunday. Addressing reporters at Israel's national police headquarters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had held a security assessment and decided on “immediate actions.” He said he would convene his Security Cabinet on Saturday night, after the end of the sabbath, to discuss a further response. Netanyahu declined to elaborate but said Israel would act with “determination and composure.” He called on the public not to take the law into their own hands. Also read: China puts forward four-point proposal regarding Palestine-Israel conflict White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. strongly condemned the attack and was “shocked and saddened by the loss of life,” noting it came on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. U.S. officials said later Friday that President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu to offer U.S. support to the government and people of Israel, calling the shootings “an attack against the civilized world.” “The President stressed the iron-clad U.S. commitment to Israel's security,” the White House said of the call. Israeli police said the shootings occurred in Neve Yaakov, a neighborhood with a large ultra-Orthodox population, and that the gunman fled in a car. Police said they chased after him and after an exchange of fire, killed him. Jerusalem police chief Doron Turjeman confirmed seven deaths, in addition to the shooter, and said three people were wounded. Police identified the attacker as a 21-year-old east Jerusalem resident who apparently acted alone. Turjeman promised an “aggressive and significant” effort to track down anyone who helped him. Police also released a photo of the pistol it said was used by the attacker. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant huddled with Israel's military chief and other top security officials and instructed them to assist police and strengthen defenses near Jerusalem and for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. “Israel’s defense establishment will operate decisively and forcefully against terror and will reach anyone involved in the attack,” Gallant said. Israel's MADA rescue service said the dead victims were five men and two women, including several who were 60 or older. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital said a 15-year-old boy was recovering from surgery. The attack was the deadliest on Israelis since a 2008 shooting killed eight people in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, according to the Foreign Ministry. Given the location and timing, it threatened to trigger a tough response from Israel. Overnight Thursday, Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, with all of them either intercepted or landing in open areas. Israel responded with airstrikes on targets in Gaza. No casualties were reported, and calm had appeared to be taking hold before Friday night's shooting. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. In Gaza, Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the ruling Hamas militant group, said the attack was “a revenge and natural response” to the deadly military raid Thursday. At several locations across the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians gathered in spontaneous demonstrations to celebrate the Jerusalem attack, with some coming out of dessert shops with large trays of sweets to distribute. In downtown Gaza City, celebratory gunfire could be heard, as cars honked and calls of “God is great!” wafted from mosque loudspeakers. In various West Bank towns, Palestinians launched fireworks. The attack escalated tensions that were already heightened following Thursday's raid in the town of Jenin, where nine people, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman, were killed. It was the deadliest single raid in the West Bank in two decades. A 10th Palestinian was killed in separate fighting near Jerusalem. Angry Palestinians marched Friday as they buried the last of those killed a day earlier. Scuffles between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters erupted after the funeral for a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, but calm prevailed in the contested capital and in the blockaded Gaza Strip for most of the day. That suddenly dissolved with the east Jerusalem shooting, described as “horrific and heartbreaking” by Yair Lapid, the opposition leader and former prime minister. Neve Yaakov is a religious Jewish settlement that Israel considers to be a neighborhood of its capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as a capital of their future state. Blinken’s trip will probably now focus heavily on lowering tensions. He is likely to discuss the underlying causes of the conflict, the agenda of Israel’s new far-right government and the Palestinian Authority’s decision to halt security coordination with Israel in retaliation for the raid. The Biden administration has been deeply engaged with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in recent days, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, underscoring the “urgent need here for all parties to deescalate to prevent the further loss of civilian life and to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank.” Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller skirmishes since the militant group seized power in Gaza from rival forces in 2007. Tensions have soared since Israel stepped up raids in the West Bank last spring, following a series of Palestinian attacks. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those territories since 2004, according to leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Last year, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis. So far this year, 30 Palestinians have been killed, according to a count by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations also have been killed. Israel says its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war.

Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the deadliest day in years in the territory. The violence occurred during what Palestinian health officials described as a fierce, daytime operation in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold of the West Bank that has been a focus of nearly a year of Israeli arrest raids. The conflict spiked this month, with 29 Palestinians killed since the start of the year. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed Thursday were affiliated with armed groups. The fighting comes weeks into Israel's new government, its most right-wing ever, which has pledged to take a hard line against the Palestinians and ramp up settlement construction on lands the Palestinian seek for their hoped-for state. It also comes days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the region and push for steps that might improve daily life for the Palestinians. The Israeli military said it was conducting the rare daytime operation because of intelligence it had received that a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a major foothold in the camp, was set to carry out imminent attacks against Israelis. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it targeted the militants. At least one of the dead was identified by Palestinians as a militant. Palestinian Health Minister May Al-Kaila said paramedics were struggling to reach the wounded amid the fighting. She also accused the military of firing tear gas at the pediatric ward of a hospital, causing children to choke. Video from the hospital showed women carrying children out of hospital rooms and into the corridor. The military said tear gas had likely wafted into the hospital from the clashes nearby. Read more: Israeli military kills 3 Palestinians during raids in occupied West Bank Jenin hospital identified the woman killed as Magda Obaid and the Israeli military said it was looking into reports of her death. The Palestinian Health Ministry earlier identified another one of the dead as Saeb Azriqi, 24, who was brought to a hospital in critical condition after being shot, and died from his wounds. And the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority, claimed one of the dead, Izz al-Din Salahat, as a fighter. The ministry said at least 20 people were wounded. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, condemned the violence, calling on the international community to speak out against it. Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, told The Associated Press the military prevented medical teams from evacuating the wounded and fired tear gas that seeped into the government hospital, affecting infants and interrupting surgeries. The military said forces closed roads to facilitate their operation, which may have complicated the efforts of rescue teams to reach the wounded. “We ask that the international community help the Palestinians against this extremist right-wing government and protect our citizens,” he said. The deaths drew condemnation from neighboring Jordan as well as from the militant Islamic Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad branch in the coastal enclave has repeatedly fought against Israel, most recently in a fierce three-day clash last summer that killed dozens of Palestinians and disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Tensions surrounding violence in the West Bank have in the past spilled over to Gaza. “The response of the resistance to what happened today in Jenin camp will not be delayed,” warned top Hamas official Saleh Arouri. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared since Israel launched the raids last spring, following a spate of Palestinian attacks that killed 19 people, while another round of attacks later in the year brought the death toll to 30. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed. So far this year, and not including Thursday, one-third of the Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or civilians had ties to armed groups. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel's 55-year, open-ended occupation. Read more: Israel troops kill 2 Palestinians during raid in occupied West Bank Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. Israel's new far-right government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and propped up by ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, has pledged to put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its priority list and has already announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians for pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation.